
Experience of 
A Recruit 
in the_^ 

United States 
Army 



'^-.livcf^ce. \i. . L» 



r^< 



Washington 

Governmenl Printing Office 

1916 



D. of D. 
JUL 17 1916 






War Department, 
The Adjutant General's Office, 

WasUngton, D. C, May 5, 1916. 
With the view of presenting to all concerned the actual experiences 
of a young man who enlists in the United States Army, the following 
extracts from the Columbus Citizen, of Columbus, Ohio, are repub- 
lished. This tale of human interest was published in the newspaper 
mentioned from March 31 to April 4, 1916, and, as stated in the 
editor's note, depicts the actual experiences of a newspaper reporter 
detailed to find out and tell the Citizen readers how the United States 
prepares its soldiers for duty. These articles .are republished with- 
out comment, as it is obvious that comment is unnecessary. 

H. P. McCain, 
The Adjutant General. 
1 

41385°— 16 



EXPERIENCE OF A RECRUIT IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY. 

By C. C. Lyon. 



[Issue of March 30, 1916.] 

I'm a private in the United States Regular Army now. 

Half the civihzed world is at war. 

The United States has rushed practically every available regular 
to the Mexican border and has sent several thousand into Mexico 
to capture the bandit Villa "dead or alive." 

President Wilson is vigorously urging preparedness for national 
defense. 

Congress has just authorized a considerable increase in the Regu- 
lar Army. 

More young men are now joining the colors than in many years. 

The Ohio Militia and that of other States, are on their toes, ready 
for a possible call to border duty. 

Wliat about the thousands of men who are doing the drilling and 
who will do the fightmg and the dying if trouble comes ? 

What class of fellows are they ? 

Wliy do they join the Army? 

What does the Army do for them and to them during their enlist- 
ment ? 

What chance for promotion has an enlisted man ? 

LYON DID EVERYTHING RECRUIT DOES EXCEPT ENLIST AND TAKE 

THE OATH. 

It was to find answers to these questions that I went into the Army. 
I wanted to see the machmery of the Army workmg from the inside. 

I didn't tie myself up for a three-year enlistment. By special 
arrangement with high Ai-my officials, I was permitted to "join," 
but the door was left open so I could get out when I had gathered 
aU the information I was after. The only detail I omitted was the 
signing of the enlistment papers and the taking of the oath. 

I am now at the Columbus Barracks, where Regular Army recruits 
from 14 States are collected and whipped into shape for real service. 

Editor's Note.— C. C. Lyon, Citizen reporter, is now in the United States Regular Army, stationed 
at the Cohimbus Barracks, to find out and teH Citizen readers how Uncle Sam prepares his soldiers for 
duty. This is the first of a series of articles which will be published from time to time as Lyon's experiences 
develop. 
2 



Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 3 

I'm sleeping, eating, and drilling, with the Tenth Recruit Company, 
United States Army, Capt. Mason commanding, and First Lieut. 
Thompson next in command. 

Seventy- two of us recruits presented ourselves at the barracks 
receiving station the same morning. 

One of the first questions the sergeant in charge asked was: 

''When did you have a bath last ?" 

Those of us who could show visible proof of acquaintance with a 
tub within three days were waived aside. For the rest it was a hot 
shower with plenty of soap and scrul)bmg. 

"The first thing you learn in the Army is to keep clean," the 
sergeant told us. 

We were a nondescript crowd that went to the hospital for physical 
examination. 

Most of the fellows were between 19 and 24. A majority of us 
slouched along as we walked, makmg no effort at erect carriage. 
Only a few were well dressed. Several looked like down-and-outers. 
A good many were smoking cigarettes. 

DESIRE FOR ADVENTURE ATTRACTS MANY YOUNG MEN INTO THE ARMY. 

Why do young men join the Army? 

While we loafed at the hospital I talked with a lot of my fellow 
recruits. 

"I'm after a crack at that feUow ViUa," said one. 

"If you'd see the to's\Ti I came from you'd know," said another. 
"Deadest place in Georgia. I worked in a grocery store. I want 
to see something." 

"I and my girl had a falling out and I threatened to join the Army. 
She said I didn't have the nerve," said a third. 

Most of the boys said they craved adventure and excitement and 
thought they could get it soldiering. Stories of the Villa hunt, 
almost without exception, had aroused their fighting spirit. 

Six of the 72 backed out before the physical examinations began. 
That is a privilege with, recruits, I learned; they may change their 
mind and stay out provided they haven't signed enlistment j^apers 
and taken the oath. 

"Wliat's the matter, brother?" I asked one of the quitters. 

"Cold feet, I guess," he said. "I think I'U go into the Navy." 

He was from wSouth Carolina and the Government had paid his 
way to the Columbus Barracks. He was dead broke. It was walk 
back home or ride freights for those who ' ' declined," if they happened 
to be broke. 

The physical examinations of the rest of us required all morning 
and was machine-hke in precision. 



4 Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 

The examining officers divided us into two groups, photographed 
and finger-printed us and then had us change to our Garden of Eden 
costume. 

"I'll now test your lungs," the chief examiner called out and then 
he went rapidly down the line thumping and testmg with medical 
instruments each man in his turn. 

"Now your hearts." He made us hop on one foot two or three 
times around the big room and then applied another instrument. 

As he found a defect in a recruit he called it out and a clerk put it 
down. 

LYON HAS FLAT FEET. 

He was testing our feet and he reached me. 

"Call out your name," he commanded. 

"Lyon," I said. 

"Flat feet in the first degree for Lyon," he told the clerk. 

"Would that disqualify me?" I asked. 

"Not first degree flat feet. But third degree would. We'll fix 
you up with proper shoes." 

Later he declared I needed some dental work. Nearly two-thirds 
of all the recruits examined had something the matter with their 
teeth. 

The medical examiner tested us for every disease and ailment I 
ever heard of and many I'd never heard of. 

Tlien he turned us over to an eye, ear, and nose specialist — an 
Army officer, who put us through his tests. 

Only six were rejected for physical disabilities. 

We recessed for dinner. 

INSURED AGAINST DISEASE. 

''Now we're gomg to vaccinate you," the sergeant in charge said, 
when we returned to the hospital. They marched us into a sort of 
operating room. 

''Let me say first that if any of you men get sick while we're work- 
ing on you, just lie right down on the floor. It'll be all right," said 
the chief in charge. 

We stripped to the waist and as we marched past a table one 
attendant dabbed our left arms with alcohol, another attendant 
painted a part of the arm with iodine, and a third one scratched us 
each with a vaccinating needle. 

"This is for smallpox," the chief said. "Now to inoculate you 
agamst typhoid," he added. 

This was more painful. He jabbed us with a big syringe just 
around the corner from the smallpox wound, on the left arm, and 
shot what seemed to be about a spoonful of medicine into each of us. 



Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 5 

TOOK SOME OF HIS BLOOD. 

The blood test was the most painful of all. 

''We want about a thimbleful of your blood to make the Wasser- 
mann blood test," we were told. 

We bared our right arms. Only a few were allowed in the room at 
a time. 

"It's not a bad idea to look out of the window at the scenery 
while we're doing this/' I was told. 

One attendant tightly bound my arm below the elbow and I was 
told to clench my fist tightly. As I did so another operator stuck a 
rather large pump affair into the most prominent artery. The out- 
side scenery had ceased to interest me and I turned just in time to 
see a small test tube filling with my life's blood. 

BIG OUTFIT OF CLOTHING. 

Being fitted out with clothing, shoes, and toilet kit was the pleas- 
antest stunt of the day. 

There was a noncommissioned officer at the supply station who 
would take just one look at the recruit and call out to clerks the size 
of a suit that would fit him. 

That man's judgment was well-nigh perfect. Out of the 60 men 
he outfitted that afternoon, he made only four bad guesses. 

"He's been fitting out recruits for 25 years and is the best in the 
Army," Sergt. Simpson, our guide, told us proudly. 

Each of us received an olive-drab uniform cap and overcoat, two 
pairs of tan shoes, leggings, four suits of underwear, six pairs of socks, 
a suit of overalls, and a soldier's toilet kit, which contained a razor, 
shaving brush, soap, shoe brush and polish, clothes brush, tooth 
brush, hair brush and comb, and mending outfit. 

SELL CIVILIAN CLOTHES. 

"Now, get into your uniforms," commanded Sergt. Simpson. 

A second-hand clothing man was at the receiving station to buy 
our civilian clothes if we cared to sell. Some of the boys got as much 
as $2 for their entire wardrobe. I had mine sent home. 

They divided us into platoons of 16 men each for assignment to 
barracks and drill sergeants. 

I went to Company 10, Sergt. Watt, along with 15 other new men. 

"You'll like Watt," said Sergt. Simpson, as he marched us over 
to the Tenth's barracks. "He's seen 27 years in the Army. There's 
none better when it comes to drilling." 



6 Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 

[Issue of March 31, 1916.] 

DriU! DriU! DriU! 

Drill is the big word in an Army post dictionary. 

Left, right; left, right; one, two, three, four; one, two, three, 
four! 

The sergeants bark it at you everj^ minute you are on the drill 
grounds. 

And right here let me say the drill sergeants are the backbone of 
an Army recruiting post. 

Whether the recruit will make a good soldier depends largely on 
the drill sergeant. 

Take Sergt. Watt, for instance, the drill sergeant who puts me 
through my paces for nearly three hours every day. 

Watt met our platoon of 16 men at the barracks door that fu"st 
evening when Sergt. Simpson led us from the receiving station, all 
dressed up in our Army uniforms. 

"Gee, but that fellow looks stern," I thought to myself after my 
first glance at Watt. 

A middle-aged man, with a grave, serious face, but every inch a 
soldier. That's the man I saw. 

We certainly did not look much like soldiers. All seemed strangely 
awkward in their new "rookie" clothes. 

WATCHED OVEB 'eM LIKE A FATHER THE FIRST NIGHT. 

"Now, men," ho said, or rather commanded, by way of introduc- 
tion, "get a move on; lay your things on those bunks and come to 
my desk; I want to talk to you." 

We instantly felt he was not a man to be trifled with, and wo 
promptly got a move on. 

"I don't want one of you men to leave this room to-night," he said. 

Jaws dropped all around me. My own dropped a little. Nearly 
everyone of us had personal plans outside the post. 

"I have a good reason," he continued. " You've all been vaccinated 
and inoculated to-day, and you are liable to be sick to-night. I want 
you here where I can look after you." 

I decided right then I was going to like Sergt. Watt. 

And Sergt. Watt's attitude, I have found, is typical of the service. 

The United States Government looks after its fighters — their 
health, morals, and physical development to minute details, and their 
mental development to a certain extent. 

Every day Sergt. Watt devoted one hour to lecturing us. 

Editor's note. — C. C. Lyon, reporter for the Citizen, is now in the United States Regular Army, drill- 
ing at the Columbus Barracks, to get stories of Army life for Citizen readers. This is the second of several 
articles he will write. 



Experience of a Recruit In the United States Army. 7 

'"The first thing a soldier must learn," he said that same evening, 
"is cleanliness of body, how to appear neat and soldierly in his 
clothes, and how to behave himself inside and outside the post." 

We found out mighty soon what Sergt. Watt meant by "cleanli- 
ness" — two baths a week, at least; teeth cleaned three times a day; 
face and hands scrubbed with hot water and soap before every meal; 
shoes shined at least twice a day; clothes always spotless and pressed; 
shaves at least twice a week, and every man is supplied with four 
suits of underwear and six pairs of socks to change as often as he 
wants to. 

One fellow in our platoon "complained," as he was cleamng his 
teeth: 

"I don't suppose I ever brushed my teeth tliree times in all my life 
before I joined the Army," he said. 

SENT ROOKIE BACK TO WASH HIS FACE RIGHT. 

At the first drill under Sergt. Watt he singled out one of the boys. 

"Did you wash your face tliis morning, young man?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Well, go back and try it over again and this time put a little 
more enthusiasm and soap into it." 

At first drillmg is tiresome but it's a lot of fun. 

Some of the fun is in watcliing the awkward recniit and in pitying 
the patient drill sergeant as he tries hour after hour to teach him 
how to keep step and to distinguish his right foot from his left. 

I watched Sergt. Donald WilHamson one day. Out of eight com- 
mands "right face," one recruit turned to the left seven times. He 
knew, of course, his right hand from his left, but ho would become 
confused every time he heard the command. 

"You and I'll leani left from right next Sunday," said the ser- 
geant in despair. Smiday is a day off at the post. 

SOME NEVER CAN LEARN. 

"About one recruit in every thousand is absolutely incapable of 
distinguishing left from right or of learning how to keep stop with liis 
company," said First Sergt. Stone. "We finally switch him from one 
company to another, and if nobody can drill it into him he's dismissed 
from the Army." 

However, I was told that some of the most awkward recruits in 
a few months make the best drillers. 

One big fellow in our platoon was made to stand aside nearly all of 
one morning because he couldn't keep step with the rest. 

But he wasn't half as discouraged as Sergt. Watt. After drill he 
said to the sergeant: 

"I am as clumsy as a cow now, but I'll learn or die." 



8 



Experience of a Recruit in the United States Armyo 




Experience of a Recruit In the United States Army. 9 

MADE OF THE RIGHT STUFF. 

That afternoon, when the rest of us were enjoying an hour off he 
. was outside the barracks with a couple of pals practicing with dogged 
perseverance. 

''He'll make it," said Sergt. Watt. "He's got good stuff in him." 

What's the use of all this di-illing ? 

My answer would be that there never was a machine that would do 
perfect work unless every part worked smootlily and with absolute 
precision. And that goes for the war macliine. 

There's no doubt, too, that di-illing gives one a wonderful "set up" 
feeling. 

It made me realize for the first time in my life that I had a back- 
bone. 

BRACES A MAN UP. 

After drills I would find myseK walking around with my shoulders 
thrown back, head up, stomach drawn in, and hitting the ground on 
the balls of my feet. 

There's no room in the United States Army for the slouch. 

There's another thing that distinguishes the Army man, and drill 
and discipline does it; he snaps off his physical movements and his 
mind soon comes to work just as briskly. 

Army life makes real men out of some mighty poor specimens. 

Sergt. Mike Garvey pointed out to me one day a young fellow of 20 
M^ho looked as if he might have had previous training in a military 
academy. 

AWAKENED HIS AMBITION. 

"He came to me just 12 days ago," said the sergeant. "He was 
all bent over, carried his head on one side, had no ambition, and 
couldn't concentrate his mind on the simplest commands. I won- 
dered how he ever got past the receiving station." 

"How did you transform him?" I asked. 

"Drill and exercises. He woke up when he found he was holding 
the entire platoon back. Now, he's a comer." 

It now takes Uncle Sam about 25 drill days to whip the recruit into 
shape so he can be assigned to a regiment and sent away from the 
Columbus Barracks. 

About 30 men are now being sent out every day, and the recruit- 
ing rush hasn't really begun. 

Two of my new-made acquaintances left this week — one for a fort 
in Arizona and the other for Coast Artillery duty in Rhode Island. 

"And just think," said one, "just five weeks ago I was feeding the 
cows on the farm." 

"And I was tending a soda water fountain," said the other. 

Both looked the part of real fighting men. 



10 Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 

[Issue of April 3, 1916.] 

UNCLE SAM'S SOLDIERS LIVE ON " FAT OF LAND " AND HAVE PLENTY OF 
TIME FOR FLAY. SAYS LYON— CITIZEN REPORTER WHO JOINED THE 
ARMY DESCRIBES LIFE AT COLUMBUS BARRACKS. 

At my breakfast in the Columbus Barracks mess hall a 20-year-old 
recruit from West Virginia, sitting next to me, ate six fried eggs, as 
many slices of bacon, a grapefruit, three cups of coffee, a plateful of 
potatoes, and I don't know how many slices of bread and butter. 

A sergeant who presided at the head of our table, which seated 11 
besides myseK, called a waiter and ordered all the platters replenished 
from the kitchen. 

''Don't be backward, boys," he encouraged. ''Wade right into 
the grub. It's a rich country you're fighting for." 

I'd often heard Uncle Sam's fighters are the best fed in all the 
world. I know from personal experience now that everything served 
is of the very best quality, and there is plenty of it. 

RECRUITS PUT ON WEIGHT. 

I gained 3 pounds the fij"st week I was at the barracks, in spite of 
the fact they ahnost drilled the legs off me and my left arm was sore 
from vaccination and inoculation and my right arm lame from having 
a blood pump jammed into it. 

"I'm afraid you're not doing well," said First Sergt. Stone of the 
Tenth Company. "The average recruit gains 5 pounds the first week 
and 7 pounds the second week, or 12 pounds the first 14 days he's 
at the barracks." 

I know the answer: For the first time in the lives of nine-tenths 
of the boys their existence becomes ordered and regulated. Every 
act is according to official schedule: Out of bed exactly at 6 a. m.; 
15 minutes to make up bunks, dress, and be outside for roll call; 
brealdast at 6.45; drills at 7.15, 8.15, and 9.15; dinner at 12 noon; 
recreation, 1 to 3; retreat at 4.30; supper at 5; lights out at 9. 

The Government is feeding its barracks soldiers for a little more 
than 26 cents a day per man. 

Sergt. John F. Wells is the man who turns the trick at the Columbus 
post. 

"I'm held responsible for results just as the drill sergeants are," 
said Sergt. WeUs. " I have to feed the hundreds of recruits so they'll 
have strength and muscle for the rigorous physical training they get." 

All the cooking and serving of food is done by the soldiers them- 
selves. The cooks qualify as "Army cooks" and get a sergeant's 
pay, plus $15 a month. All the other work — such as waiting table, 
drying the dishes and silverware — falls to the lot of the recruits. 
Each recruit puts in about 1 day in every 10 doing "kitchen police." 

Editor's note. — C. C. Lyon, Citizen reporter, is in the United States Regular Army, stationed at t*" 
Columbus Barracks, to write Army stories for Citizen readers. This is the third of a series of articles. 



Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 1 1 




12 Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 

I wiped something like 1,100 dishes the day I was on duty and 
thought it fun. And I used to kick when my wife asked me to wipe 
15 or 20. 

POINTS OF A SOLDIER. 

In developing a recruit into a real soldier, Army officials lay stress 
on three things — drilling, eating, and recreation. I've told about 
the first two. Now, something about Army recreation. 

Right after dinner every day, except Sunday, we would change 
from our soldier uniforms into our "recreation clothes," which con- 
sisted of pants and blouse made of overall material. 

They marched hundreds of us to the big drill haU. There we 
found boxing gloves, medicine balls, and a lot of other gymnasium 
paraphernalia. 

They divided us into four groups. A big, fat, joUy sergeant led 
the bunch I was in. 

''I've seen 28 years in the service, am fat, and no longer a spring 
chicken," he told us the first day. "If I can stand these stunts you 
young fellows ought to." 

HAVE STRENUOUS EXERCISES. 

He ran us around for 15 minutes, passed the medicine ball for 
another quarter hour, and then showed us all sorts of indoor games 
and leg and arm exercises, all fun, but carefully designed to strengthen 
our bodies. 

"Now for the boxing gloves," he said, and a shout of approval 
went up from all of us. 

In the Army they teach you to fight with your hands as well as 
with a gun. 

I was fahly itching to put the gloves on, but the scramble was so 
great I didn't get a chance until a big 6-footer took the center of the 
ring. 

He looked like a white hope, every inch of him. 

"He's the post champion," a recruit whispered to me. "He's got 
a punch like a mule kick." 

"Now's your chance, Lyon," the sergeant called out. 

But just at that moment my vaccinated arm began hurting me 
something terrible. 

THEY ALL HAVE ALIBIS. 

"My arm's too sore to-day, sergeant," I said. "I can hardly lift 
it." 

I looked around and nearly everybody else in the big circle was 
likewise nursing a sore arm. 

Later, I took on a fellow as inexperienced as myself. The post 
doctors are confident he will recover. 



Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 13 

While a mass of us were thus enjoying ourselves, noncommissioned 
officers had scores of other young fellows in another part of the 
reservation training them for the coming baseball season. 

Some of the best amateur teams in the country are to be found in 
the Army. 

Whenever a good baseball, football, or basket ball player enlists, 
there's always a good deal of wirepulling among companies to land 
him. I'm told that often high Army officers take part in this good- 
natured wirepulling. 

HAVE ATHLETIC TROPHIES. 

Tlie Tenth Company, my own organization, has a i\uml)or of beau- 
tiful silver cups won in post atliletic contests. 

A good baseball or football player is seldom sent away from the post 
to join a regiment during the baseball or football season. 

The Columbus Barracks has free bowhng alleys and all recruits are 
urged to use them. A big pool and billiard room is also provided, 
where they can play at half the cost outside the post. 

A well-stocked library and reading room is also maintained for 
the men. 



[Issiieof April 4, 191(1.] 

ARMY PRIVATE HAS CHANCE TO BE AN OFHCER— AFTER TWO YEARS' 
SERVICE HE MAY TAKE AN EXAM FOR SECOND LIEUTENANCY. 

Wliat chance has an enUsted man for promotion and bigger pay in 
the Regular Army ? 

I'm going to draw no conclusions of my own that would influence 
any young man to join the Army. I'm only going to repeat what 
several men already in the service told me. 

''Everything depends on the enlisted man liimsoK," said a sergeant 
with 28 years of Army experience behind him. 

He draws $48 a month pay, and when he goes on the retired list in 
two more years Uncle Sam will pay him $67.50 a month for the rest of 
his life, provided he is made a first sergeant by that time. And it is 
customary for that promotion to be made where a man's record has 
been good. 

This particular sergeant is now 45 years old. "How many men at 
47 can show as much as I'll be able to show?" he asked. "I'm more 
than satisfied with Army life." 

Editor's note. — This is the fourth and last of a series of articles on the Regular Army by C. C. Lyon, 
reporter for the Citizen. Lyon spent some tim^ at the Columbus Barracks, eating, sleeping, and diilluig 
with hundreds of recruits. 



4 Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 




Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 1 5 

it's not all sunshine. 

I got the other side from a private who has liad more than 20 
years' service. 

"I made the mistake of my hfe when I first went into the Army," 
he said. ' ' I've been a sergeant several times and a first sergeant once, 
but I didn't behave myself and here I am back with the privates." 

Tliis fellow apparently had lost his "pmich" and was sticking in 
the Army because he thought liimself too old to tackle civihan life 
anew. 

"There's nothing in Army Hfe as a career," he said, "unless the boy 
is determined right from the start to make a success of it. Other- 
wise, it becomes merely a place to put in time." 

WHAT A SOLDIER EARNS. 

The minimum pay for an enlisted private is $15 a month, for a 
corporal $21, and for a sergeant $30. There is an increase of $3 
a month for each three-year reenlistment up to the seventh by 
corporals and sergeants, giving them maximums of $39 and $48, 
respectively. The maximum for a private is $24. First sergeants 
get from $45 to $69 a month, according to length of service. 

A number of the noncommissioned officers are married. The 
Government pays these men "ration money" amounting now to an 
additional 25 cents a day, and, furthermore, permits them to buy 
food supplies for their families from the Army store rooms at actual 
Government cost. Noncommissioned officers also are furnished all 
their military wearing apparel free. 

NO PLACE FOR A LOAFER. 

"If a young fellow hasn't the stuff in him to justify us in promot- 
ing hhn to the noncommissioned ranks, he'd better quit the Army 
after his first enlistment," a commissioned officer of high rank de- 
clared. 

He was speaking of the fellows who go into the Army with the 
idea of sticking, one enlistment after another. 

An enlisted private becomes a noncommissioned officer on the 
recommendation of his company commander. 

It doesn't take the commanders long to spot the "comers." Out 
of the 60 who enlisted the day I myself went into the Army, I thought 
I could pick at least 10 who would at least be corporals before their 
enlistment expired. 

They were the chaps who showed the most aptitude in drill, ap- 
peared neatest and trimmest in their uniforms, and put "punch" 
into everything they did, whether in the barracks, on the drill 
grounds, or at play. 



16 Experience of a Recruit in the United States Army. 

MAY BE AN OFFICER. 

Nowadays an enlisted man has a chance to win a commission in the 
Army. After two years' service he may come tip for examination 
along with other enlisted men, and the topnotchers get the shoulder 
straps. They go in on the same footing as graduates from West 
Point — second lieutenants. 

I talked with several young men who were spending their evenings 
in the post library getting ready for the examinations. 

In time of actual war chances for the advancement of enlisted 
men and noncommissioned officers would be much better. 

"I'm almost certain to be made a captain if war is ever declared," 
a sergeant told me. "In actual war the Army would need many 
additional commissioned officers." 

NEVER TALK OF DEATH. 

In all my time at the Columbus Barracks I never heard any 
soldier — private, noncommissioned, or commissioned — speak of the 
possibility of getting killed. 

Sergt. Watt, my drillmaster, in a lecture one day had this to say: 

"Disease, you'll find, kills many more soldiers than bullets. That's 
why the Government is so determined that every soldier shall have 
a sound body and know how to take care of it." 

Just now there are thousands of young fellows throughout the 
country trying to decide whether they'll join the Army. 

WHAT ARMY OFFERS. 

Each one must decide for himself. I can only furnish him with 
these facts, gained from my own personal experience: 

Army drill and exercise is bound to improve the physical being of 
every man who enters. 

In the barracks the food is first class. 

The recreation periods furnish more fun and amusement than the 
average young fellow ever finds on the outside. 

The pay is small for privates, but practically everything is fur- 
nished him and he has his pay for spending money. 

The bright, alert chaps get the promotions. 

o 



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